[Seventh Ledge: the Lustful.--Passage through the flames.--Stairway
in the rock.--Night upon the stairs.--Dream of
Dante.--Morning.--Ascent to the Earthly Paradise.--Last words of
Virgil.]

As when he darts forth his first rays there where his Maker shed his
blood (Ebro falling tinder the lofty Scales, and the waves in the Ganges
scorched by noon), so the sun was now standing; so that the day was
departing, when the glad Angel of God appeared to us[16]. Outside the
flame he was standing on the bank, and was singing "Beati mundo corde"
[Blessed are the pure in heart], in a voice far more living than ours:
then, "No one goes further, ye holy souls, if first the fire sting not;
enter into it, and to the song beyond be ye not deaf," he said to us,
when we were near him. Whereat I became such, when I heard him, as is he
who in the pit is put[17]. With hands clasped upwards, I stretched
forward, looking at the fire, and imagining vividly human bodies I had
once seen burnt. The good Escorts turned toward me, and Virgil said to
me, "My son, here may be torment, but not death. Bethink thee! bethink
thee! and if I even upon Geryon guided thee safe, what shall I do now
that I am nearer God? Believe for certain that if within the belly of
this flame thou shouldst stand full a thousand years, it could not make
thee bald of one hair. And if thou perchance believest that I deceive
thee, draw near to it, and make trial for thyself with thine own hands
on the hem of thy garments. Put aside now, put aside every fear; turn
hitherward, and come on secure."

And I still motionless and against conscience!

When he saw me still stand motionless and obdurate, he said, disturbed a
little, "Now see, son, between Beatrice and thee is this wall."

As at the name of Thisbe, Pyramus, at point of death, opened his eyelids
and looked at her, what time the mulberry became vermilion, so, my
obduracy becoming softened, I turned me to the wise Leader, hearing the
name that in my memory is ever welling up. Whereat he nodded his head,
and said, "How! do we want to stay on this side?" Then he smiled as one
doth at a child who is conquered by an apple.

Then within the fire he set himself before me, praying Statius that he
would come behind, who previously, on the long road, had divided us.
When I was in, into boiling glass I would have thrown myself to cool me,
so without measure was the burning there. My sweet Father, to encourage
me,